While some remember the days of the milkman, others – well, they remember the milk box.  Milk has been lunchtime staple for centuries, as children’s welfare came to the forefront of education in the early 20^th century.  In the more developed countries, lunch programs started sprouting up, and almost all of them included milk.  For just a few cents a small bottle could be purchased, filled with vitamins and nutrients that many children were lacking at the time.  As programs were developing, some provided milk for purchase (or even for free!) at the cafeteria/lunchroom/wherever there was a place to eat lunch. 

As time wore on, getting milk at school changed.  No longer were expensive clunky bottles filled with moo juice needed – technology came to save the day with the milk carton!  The milk carton bin provided a choice for any kid to make as they started or ended their school lunch line.  For some, the choice was simple – CHOCOLATE.  Some lucky sweet-toothed people even had the choice of strawberry milk.  Others, well, some might have felt a twinge of guilt for wanting the near-dessert richness of the chocolate milk, opting for plain ol' white milk.  Others felt the guilt but grabbed the chocolate anyway.  After all, it did say milk, right? 

Aside from being an excellent dairy transport device, milk cartons would be used for a variety of school projects throughout the year, from building sculptures to designing armor to help an egg absorb and survive the classic physics project, the “Egg Drop.” 

Today, there are a plethora of choices to be made when choosing milk.  There’s whole, lowfat and skim.  Chocolate.  Soy.  Schools offer bottled water, and sometimes even juices.  Freedom of choice has extended itself down to the elementary school lunch line, allowing the dairy free to remain that way.  Though the good old days of a simple choice between white and chocolate may be gone, the memories of a complete and “balanced” (cough!) lunch remain.